Hefty Reward for Anyone With a Working Solution
Ro Laren is at it again. Left alone with access to the bed today she befouled not just the bed, but the brand new down comforter, brand new featherbed, and brand new sheets.
I mean when she does a job, she does a job.
Popular wisdom is that she does this when her box is unacceptable to her. Once a week cleaning seems to be enough, but that would have made today like 12 hours late, so I'm not sure that's all there is to it.
Us being gone for so long, then all the boxes and everything in the house, plus we had three guests for a few days, and then - new bedding. All of that I believe contributes to the syndrome.
But knowing why it is happening does not tell us how to stop it, and there is an outside possibility we will have people over again.
The vet told us the last time we talked that when this happens we should confine her with her box. So she's in kitty jail today, the guest bathroom all day, all by herself. She has not been a model prisoner. Originally I had thought this would be an overnight sentence, but I am not a hanging judge and I am wavering. Do cats perceive time like we do anyway? Will she know the difference between 12 hours and 24? Somehow I think she won't.
In the meantime I think I will finally break down and buy an automatic litter box. We've been getting by by adding a box each time we add a cat and then sticking to the normal cleaning schedule. That seems to be failing and I don't seem to be capable of a more rigorous schedule.
Today I looked at the LitterMaid, PurrformaPlus, and the LitterRobot. I think I am partial to the Litter Robot. The online reviews of the others all featured about an equal number of happy and unhappy customers whereas the robot was almost all positive. One would hope it would be, the thing costs an arm and a leg.
Anyone got any experience with any of these? Or a solution to the problem we haven't thought of? I am serious about the reward.
Ok. Time to parole the pussy.
3 comments:
Try a several litter boxes - one on each floor if you have multiple floors or in a couple of different rooms - that worked for us.
I've heard changing litter brands can help - I think it's a scent thing, like they don't associate the new smell with the litterbox they are avoiding.
I don't know about the autolitter boxes. We used to clean the litter box daily, immeadiately if we were witness to a "function" and that didn't seem to make a difference.
I'm sure you know that once a cat has peed somewhere, they will continue to go back there - not sure if it's instinct or the smell of pee. So I'm not sure what you can do about your mattress, since that won't be easy to clean...
And if you've been to the vet I'd assume they've ruled out kidney disorders, which are pretty common for cats, esp. as they get older. Not much you can do there but buy little diapers.
My mom had five cats and five litter boxes but four of the cats all seemed to want to use the same litter box and the fifth then used the floor. I don't know what the solution to that is, password-controlled litter boxes? Oy vey.
Also I just read about a person with a similar problem on another blog and they swear by this stuff called Anti-Icky Poo. http://www.antiickypoo.com/
Great name, hmm?
I actually used the littermaid for a number of years. It was loud and smelled horrible so I recently switched to a box called ScoopFree. (www.scoopfree.com) It's much cheaper than the Litter Robot and uses crystal litter instead of clumping. The crystals seem to do a great job of keeping the smell down, plus the box is so much easier to clean since you just toss the entire cartridge with litter and waste out after a few weeks.
-John
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